NFL raises salary cap by $30 million to a record-high $255.4 million

NFL teams will have about $30 million more to spend this offseason after the league raised the salary cap for active player contracts to a record $255.4 million, the league announced Friday.

That’s the highest increase ever and is now more than double what it was in 2013. The league also will give each club an additional $74 million to player benefits, including Performance Based Pay and benefits for retired players. So, in total, every NFL team will have $329.4 million to spend next year.

The huge increase in salary cap space is the result a combination of money owed from the COVID-19 pandemic as well as new media rights deals for the upcoming season.

“The unprecedented $30 million increase per club in this year’s salary cap is the result of the full repayment of all amounts advanced by the clubs and deferred by the players during the Covid pandemic,” the league wrote in a statement, “as well as an extraordinary increase in media revenue for the 2024 season.”

How does this affect the Houston Texans? It means they have even more salary cap space than previously expected. Houston will have around $67 million in cap space this season, according to Over The Cap, and around $64 million in effective cap space (which includes the projected rookie class).

The new salary cap number also affects the franchise tag, which the Texans can but aren’t expected to use on tight end Dalton Schultz. It would cost Houston around $12.7 million to lock Schultz down for a one-year, guaranteed deal in 2024, according to Texans Cap. It would also give the team more time to agree on a long-term extension.

With the 2024 salary cap ceiling announced, the offseason deals can start to take shape. The window to use the franchise tag ends on March 5, while the legal tampering period for free agency begins on March 11.

Here we go.